PCMag

Print magazines are doomed. Soon all publications will move online. As with all media trends of late, this one starts with the geekiest information technology publications and rapidly cascades to more mainstream spaces. PC Magazine, an icon of IT journalism, started the trend in November. Now Electronic Gaming Monthly, an icon of gaming journalism, shuts down its print edition in favor of its 1UP network of sites.

Don’t think only the computer nerds are eschewing paper. Electronic Gaming Monthly catered to slightly less geeky console and handheld gamers as well. The cascade to the mainstream has begun. Soon even the dumbest supermarket gossip mag will go purely online.

PR guru Steve Rubel predicts the death of all tangible media by January 2014. The way things are going, dead tree magazines may not even have that long.

PC Magazine, an icon of IT journalism since 1982 and home of the famous cranky geek John C. Dvorak, will see its last issue roll off the presses in January 2009. Do not weep for PC Magazine, however. They’re not closing down. Instead, they’ll do what all old media publications will inevitably do: shut down their print edition and focus on their more profitable online properties.

On the online side [Ziff Davis CEO Jason Young] wouldnâ€™t disclose the revenues for the PCMag brand, but said it was in â€œtens and tens of millionsâ€ of dollars. He said the revenues on the online side have grown an average of 42 percent yearly since 2001; digital is about 70 percent of the revenues for the PCMag brand, and overall is profitable. He said that despite the economic situation, the PCMag brand revenues grew about 18 percent in Q308, and thinks that it will hold up despite advertising downturn due to the power of the brand.